Toyah Cordingley: Australia flies man from India over beach murder

Image source, Supplied

Image caption, Toyah Cordingley's body was discovered in October 2018
  • Author, Simon Atkinson
  • Role, 大象传媒 News, Queensland

A man suspected of murdering a woman found dead on a remote Queensland beach has been extradited to Australia from India.

Rajwinder Singh arrived at Melbourne Airport on Wednesday after being flown from Delhi accompanied by detectives.

He is accused of the 2018 killing of Toyah Cordingley, 24, in what has been called a "frenzied and brutal" attack.

The 大象传媒 understands Mr Singh will appear in court in Melbourne, before being moved to Queensland state.

He will then face a magistrate in Queensland - probably later this week - before being remanded in custody.

Mr Singh was arrested in Delhi in November last year, after the Queensland state government put up a A$1m (拢555,000; $672,000) reward for information over the killing.

Indian police handed him over to Australian officers at Delhi's international airport on Tuesday night local time.

Originally from Buttar Kalan in the Indian state of Punjab, Mr Singh had been living in Innisfail at the time of the killing, a town about two hours from the crime scene.

Police allege the 38-year-old fled Australia in the hours after the killing - and that he had stayed in Punjab for four years, avoiding arrest. He was detained by Indian officers who received a tip-off that Mr Singh was traveling to the Indian capital for a medical appointment.

Detectives have disclosed few details about how Ms Cordingley died.

She had gone to Wangetti Beach, between the popular tourist hotspots of Cairns and Port Douglas, to walk her dog on 21 October 2018, but never came home.

Her body was discovered by her father the next day, half-buried in sand dunes.

The A$1m reward is the highest ever offered in Queensland. When it was announced last year, Toyah's father, Troy Cordingley said his daughter was "a young woman who will never get the chance to live a full life and all that entails鈥 this was taken away from her".

At the time of Mr Singh's arrest, Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan said the development had been "a long time coming" and marked "the next stage of delivering justice for Toyah".